Present Day, Present Time

Some things never change, in the midst of arranging things for the 10 year anniversary for ilictronix, behind the scenes I've spent after spending the better part of a month back-and-forthing over a copyright issue. I've been planning to put this up for a while anyway, but this just gave me an even better reason to. Besides, it's been ages since I used this Soundcloud account for anything anyway.

Yes we weren't the only ones celebrating recently: super surreal psychological cyberpunk series Serial Experiments Lain also turned 20 this year. One of the contributors to the soundtrack Wasei Chikada celebrated in kind by releasing a sequel to the soundtrack to the fictional Club Cyberia, fittingly called Cyberia Layer_2. The original album Cyberia Mix has been a favourite of mine since I went down a Japanese techno/trance hole a few years ago so naturally I snatched the sequel up ASAP. I was actually going to review the album, but I didn't feel comfortable doing it when it wasn't on any streaming services for me to embed, and it's since fallen by the wayside.



Thankfully though, as a bonus for picking up the LP in physical format, Wasei hooked me up with a promo EP that consists of his rework of ScummV's bootleg remix of Bôa's Duvet (which is brilliant) and the actual live mix he did at the Serial Experiments Lain 20th party. The mix itself is mostly made up of tunes from Cyberia Layer_2 as you might expect from the title, and as such it's a pretty fantastic summary of the album, it's a real mixed bag of genres as the first Cyberia Mix was, dancing effortlessly between Electro, Techno, and House; it even gets a little synth/vaporwavy at one point which is actually very fitting given the source material. Some of the tunes from the original Cyberia Mix also make an appearance to boot, which is a nice touch. There are a couple of hip/trip hop tracks from Layer_2 that I'd have liked to make an appearance, but it's a real solid mix regardless, the appearance of Prototype K towards the end absolutely side swiped me, it's one of my favourite ambient pieces and it's put to downright sublime use here. I've transcribed a tracklist below! all tunes are by Wasei himself unless otherwise stated, and all songs are from Cyberia Layer_2 other than Antidepressant 044, Professed Intention And Real Intention and Prototype K.

Tracklist:
Antidepressant 044
Accela (Original Mix)
Accela (Ko Kimura Remix)
"s"peEd (JJ's Rework)
Got THe Mic
Hideo Kobayashi - Navi 3.0
Cloudy, With Occasional Rain (JJ's Rework)
Kuroshio (Thousand Knives Mix)
Professed Intention And Real Intention
"s"peEd (Q'hey Remix)
Antidepressant 044
Akira Takemoto - Prototype K
Sarasvati


It's been a long time since I've had a live mix added to my collection, I think the last ones I added were a bunch of Ed Banger crew bootlegs around about 2009 or so. it's been pretty nice actually, it's certainly made the commute more interesting that's for sure. Serial Experiments Lain means a lot to me; both the soundtracks and the series itself so I was very happy to see it's 20th anniversary celebrated by so many people, both fans and those involved in both the audio and visual side of things! Enjoy, and I'll see you all next week.

プレゼント • デイ
プレゼント • タイム
-Claude Van Foxbat

Spotify Monthly Selections August

Got my nostalgia cap on for this month's choices. After being asked to put on "like, some electro" for a friend's party playlist I decided to dive my old stomping grounds of electro house and see what was on offer. And once again I'm pleasantly surprised by the selection they have. So I started it with a tune I'd lusted after for ages until it finally got a proper release, Boxer is a masterclass in bombastic electro, I can't get enough of that brassy sound that it has going on. Similarly, before they became purveyors of a song often abused song for memes, Bag Raiders were legit (I say that like they still aren't), this remix was a highlight of my early electro explorations. It takes a little while to get going, but when it does, it does. Tune into 1:46 for the drop.



The rest of the list is a bit of a who's-who of Ed Banger; starting with the criminally underrated soundtrack to Steak from Mr. Oizo, the GOAT Thomas Bangalter edit of Signtune, and of course the absolute grind of SebastiAn's remix of The Kills. No real downtempo turn this time, though things do calm down not long after the Ed Banger block with the sliding scale slowdown of Apparat's mix of Shine Shine bringing this month's flashback fuelled selections nice and softly to their close.

-Claude Van Foxbat

10 Years Of 'Tronix

The new schedule means I've missed the exact date slightly but 2018 is the year that ilictronix has been surfing the digital waves for a decade and if you're into synchronicity, me and the blog actually share the same birthday!. A lot's changed in that time: trends have come and gone, my list of things to add to my collection has grown ever bigger, as has the collection itself. I'm not sure if I ever expected to reach this milestone, I can count few websites that I've frequented for 10 years or more so it's pretty mind-blowing to have my own site hit that.

A special shout out to all the staff we've had over the years, without them ilitronix wouldn't have grown like it did, and I always enjoyed a peek into other people's music collections and to hear their opinions on various releases. An extra special thanks goes out to Jordan too; original site owner for both his continued behind-the-scenes support after I took over, and of course for taking me on as a writer all those years ago, if it weren't for him I'd not be typing this right now.

What's in store for the future of ilictronix? Well I think I've had a nice groove the past few years so more of the same, with some occasional experimentation with formats and the like as you've come to expect. There have been hard times and I may not always have been the most consistent at posting for a while but I'll always keep coming back to have a natter about my latest additions or old favourites. I'd like to thank all who've read over the years, I'll keep writing and I hope you'll keep visiting. Here's to another 10!

I leave you now with a cross-section track dump of my past favourites from last 10 years of ilictronix. This is actually the severely cut down version too, otherwise I could be here all day. Regardless, It's been far too long since I've done one of these!

We've come a long way, baby

ScummV · Bôa - Duvet (ScummV Remix)

Saki Kaskas · Callista (1998)

Philestine · DJ SHADOW FT LITTLE DRAGON - SCALE IT BACK (PHILESTINE REMIX)

Here In My Car

Roy Lichtenstein - In The Car (1963)

In a remarkable case of serendipity, my shuffle on the way to work served up not one, not two but three vehicular themed tunes in a row. So I thought I'd make a post outta it. First up is fairly recent addition to my library, the first half of the 2004 adaption of Appleseed is chock full of electronic goodness. Some of it's leaning super heavy on the experimental side, but some of it's more conventional which makes for a weird mix. Here's one from a bloke that gives Aphex Twin a run for his money when it comes to aliases, Atom™. It caught my ear from the get go, laying down those bleepy Jimmy Edgar-esque sounds, which only continued when the vocals kicked in. Those of you who've been with us for a while will those distortion effects really press my buttons and the dramatic pitch shift at 1:15 is an incredibly well done and is an absolute treat to listen to on headphones.



Oddly enough the tune that came up next has a fair bit in common with Atom, both in terms of sounds and the vocal distortions as it turns out, though this one is a bit more raunchy with what's going on in the lyrics. My Red Hot Car was one of my first loves from Squarepusher, and truth be told I actually slightly prefer this version from the single than from Go Plastic which is a little bit glitch-ier in it's execution. It's fairly accessible as far as Squarepusher's catalogue goes, those no dramatic turns into IDM territory here, just a lot of Amen Breaks and some lovely electronics. A distinct lack of Bass guitar on here however.



And finally a bit of a left turn (pun intended) into Hip-Hop territory. ANother piece from the relativley obscure and forever impossible to google LA Times compilation FlyLo did for the publication of the same name. The whole thing is a treasure trove of unreleased, unheard and alternate versions of FlyLo's stuff. And this one is an example of that, from the sound of it it's probably from the early days when he was all about making [adult swim] bump-worthy tunes. It wouldn't sound too out of place on the other beat tapes he's had leak out from around the same era like July Heat. It's a bit short and doesn't really evolve over it's runtime but it's still welcome addition to my collection of instrumental hip-hop.



-Claude Van Foxbat